"I have been baptized twice, once in water, once in flame."-Joshua GrahamHonest Hearts is the second DLC to be released in the trilogy of 4. it is not clear in the DLC timeline where it falls in.(SPOILER WARNING)
The DLC starts out just like Dead Money- you receive a radio broadcast. Upon listening to it, your informed that it is from Jed Masterton, advertising work for his "Happy-Trails"caravan company. they are in need of people with a pip-boy, gun experiance, survival experiance, and that if your a "city slicker" to stay the hell away. you will track the broadcast far up north to where you'l find the "Northern Passage" which is a cave. Inside, you'l find Jed Masterton, his 2 caravan bodyguard, and 2 other interactable people. Stella, and Ricky. You can talk to both to learn there backstories before you head out on the Caravan. When you talk to jeb, he informs you that Happy Trails Has a shorter trading route through the Zion National Park, which leads them to The town of New Cannon(New Cannon is mentioned several times as an important place in fallout lore). The reason for his sudden visit to Zion tho, is because New Cannon has gone silent, no contact from it in months. So he wishes to take his caravan there to check up on the town.
Advice: just like dead money, a message will pop up before the real adventure begins, informing you you will not be able to travel back to the mojave until the DLC is finished.Zion is in Arizona, and jeb informs you that you have to pack light in order to make it through the high altitude mountains of the Park.(Meaning you can only take about 100 lbs of items with you) i have 3 suggestions on what best to do here. Ammo in Zion will be very scarce. there is only 1 supplier of weapons&ammo, and his amount is pre-set. meaning unlike other suppliers, his stock does NOT resupply itself after you buy from it.
--if you do NOT have hardcore mode on, i suggest stocking up on 4 types of ammo- 45-75 Brush gun ammo, 12.7mm ammo, .308 ammo, and .45acp ammo. These are the ammo for the most common guns you will run into in Zion (the brush gun, the 12.7mm submachine gun, the hunting rifle, and the .45submachine gun+pistol) you CAN buy .45 acp rounds from the mojave BEFORE you go to zion or owning a .45 gun. go to the Gun Runners, and they offer the ammo, spend all your caps on the ammo suggested above. there is plenty of high valued loot in Zion, so you'll earn most that money back. you CAN also buy the .45 submachine gun and pistol from the gun runners before you go to Zion, but i recomend NOT doing it, because the Gun runners charge over 3,000 caps for the submachine gun alone, in which you can get the same gun for the same repaired status for only 1,445 caps in Zion, or also pick it up off some enemies with half the repair status. Also, choose a high-damage melee weapon to take with you, when just wandering around Zion, you'l want to conserve your ammo for the bigger fights, instead of wasting it on small engagements.
--if you DO have hardcore mode on, i suggest only taking 1 gun, that guns type of ammo(with limited rounds) and 1 good melee weapon.I personally went with "This Machine"(m1 garand) with the .308 ammo, and the bumper sword. but if you dont have This Machine then i suggest taking the Hunting rifle, with an extended clip mod, and possably a scope if your a sniper class type of person, along with .308 rounds.(reason i suggest these 2 types, is because they are the lightest out of the choices, but still do good enough damage). also, i suggest taking .308 hollowpoint rounds. most of the enemies in Zion have little to no armor, so 2-3 rounds of .308 hollow point can get the job done. just remember that AMMO HAS WEIGHT, so dont go to the store and buy over 300 rounds of ammo. buy a conserved ammount, and make sure you go for kill-shots, not quick-shots.
-- There is a way to bring even more of your supplies with you, through someone else. Ricky, one of the interactable charectors is packing very very light, with only a gun, vault suit, and pipboy. he has only about 20lbs of items on him. if you talk to him, you can discover that hes pretty much a "big headed bragging city slicker" who claims to be the best guy in the group, killed a BOS paladen by "shooting him through the eyesocket with an 11mm submachine gun" and that he has a "third nut that glows in the dark". Through speech and gun status options, you can expose him as a phony,He's really a kid who's addicted to pycho, who's vault suit&pipboy he got off a dead prospector, and that his pip boy doesnt even work. after you expose him, you have 2 options, you can ether 1. expose him to jed who kicks him out of the caravan. (you earn good karma for this)or 2, you can get him to carry some of your items for ya. IF you have hardcore mode, go with 2, and give him some other guns+ammo that you'd like to take with ya.Also, when you expose his psycho addiction, you have the option of selling him some, you get 20 caps for each, but you also lose Karma.
once you choose how you want to go, talk to jeb to start the DLC. One thing he informs you tho is DO NOT speak to the locals about "the burned man" or "joshua Graham".
(quick catchup- Joshua Graham was one of Ceasar's best generals, absolutely ruthless, he had never lost a battle, ceasar had put him in charge of capturing Hoover Dam from the NCR, but at the first battle Ceasers Legion was defeated. Ceaser, wanting to make an example for his troops, had Joshua tarred&lit aflame, then thrown into the grand canyon. Ceasar believed him to be dead until rumors started to surface that he had survived. people gave him the new label- "The Burned Man".)
After you speak do Jeb, your Journay to Zion begins.
As you reach Zion, you stop to take a quick rest as Jeb finds your positions on his map. while resting, your caravan becomes ambushed by a mysterious tribe, all members of the party are killed except yourself, you must then fight the tribe off.(loot the bodies of your fallen friends, especially Ricky's if you gave him your supplies). as your fighting off the tribe, a friendly appears. He helps you fight them off, then informs you he is from a Local tribe in the Area called the "Dead Horses", and that Joshua Graham would like to have a word with you. The Friendly is Follows-Chalk.
As you follow him through the Canyons of Zion, you encounter one of your deadliest enemies from Fallout 3- the Yaoi Guai. (quick catchup: Yaoi Guai are the evolutionized result of blackbears being mutated from the nuclear fallout of the bombs, they are very fast, very powerful animals, allmost on the same level of Deathclaws, and in FO3 a yaoi Guai could stand on its own against Deathclaws, when encountering them: treat them as you would if encountering a Deathclaw)
Follows-Chalk takes you to the camp of his tribe. "The Dead Horses" are the descendants of travelers and refugees from Dead Horse Point State Park. They originally joined Ceasars Legion as the Legion expanded into Utah, and were taught how to maintain guns and how to fight from Joshua. When Joshua returned years later, he decided to pull the dead horses away from ceasar, saving them from ceasers plans to make them slaves. They speak a diff language, and believe in haunted spirits wandering the lands)
Once in the camp, you are led to Joshua Graham, "The Burned Man" himself, wrapped in bandages.
From him, you learn that there is only 1 way out of the camp, but he can not help you until they get rid of the threat to zion- the tribe that attacked you known as the "White Legs".(The white legs are a tribe from the Great Salt Lakes)
He tells you that New Cannon has been wiped out by the white leg's leader "Salt Upon Wounds"(He is named this due to after he slaughtered all in New Cannon, he had his tribe salt the ground around the town so nothing could ever grow there again) and that they have done this due to them wanting to join Ceasars Legion. Ceasar, knowing Graham to be alive, had the white legs attack New Cannon as a personal insult to Graham.
Graham asks for your assistance in the battle against the white legs. in which he has you travel the land to recovery certain old world items (walky talkies, compases) to assist the Dead horses. Graham is also the owner trader in Zion. from him you can get ammo, the .45 submachine and pistol, along with other items. but as stated above his supply does NOT restock itself. so when you buy ammo, when its gone its gone. he never gets more for you to buy)
Graham is a textbook example of a religious Narcissist. the new cannonites were a very religious group believing in the bible, and God. Graham believes his battle against the White Legs is a "Crusade" against the wicked evils that would threaten Zion, which he says belongs to "God, and God's people" not the white legs.and believe himself to be the hand of god passing judgement down upon the wicked.
